Adventures in Shopping: How I Got My First “Good” Banjo
When my Dad “left” the phone company, he was offered a buyout and a boost of his pension and benefits to make it seem as if he had worked a full 35 years. To the best of my recollection, he was at 33 years +/- but he’d been dealing with increasingly expensive and work disrupting carpal tunnel issues due to, well, 33 years of twisting and splicing wires. He was an outside lineman for his whole career. This story isn’t about that, but about how he and I found my first “good” banjo.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m great at spending money, and it’s a trait I get honestly. I learned from the best, lol. See, when he got his payout, it was lump sum 2 years salary-ish, and benefits as if he’d worked 35 years. 35 years… It sounds like hell to me, and listening to him talk about it, it wasn’t fun for him at all. When I was thinking about applying to a similar position in Denver due to the starting pay being ~$60k/yr and also because I was so DONE with being a broke college student… OMG, if he could’ve reached thru the phone and slapped me he would have. He convinced me to stay the course and NOT follow his route, and thank goodness I did and that he was so adamant about getting education over “easy money”.
When he got his payout, it was like he’d won the lottery. He had a pension, and now a fat stack of bills to throw around and holy hell, did he throw it around. For me, I ended up with a grand, $1,000 USD, with the only stipulation from him that I do NOT spend it towards bills or any “useful/needed” purpose. It was designated to have fun with and get something I wouldn’t be able to afford but wanted to buy. My first thought, New banjo!! For those unaware, banjos are expensive! A thousand bucks would get me into the “starter realm” for good banjos. I started shopping around and test playing any that I could find to figure out what I wanted or didn’t want, that was in that price range.
Deering It Is
I quickly came to realize that I liked the Deering sound, and I’d just saved up and bought my first good banjo, a Deering Goodtime with resonator and I still have that banjo. It’s great, lightweight, and packs a ton of sound for its size/weight. I visited the Ome factory in Boulder, if you’ve never been, it’s very cool. You can see where and how they make the pots, necks, inlay, apply the finish, all of it. It was awesome, but out of my price range. Then I decided it would be time to take a trip home because where else could I find a better selection of banjos than Nashville? It was only 45 minutes south of Bowling Green, so why not have a visit AND shop for a new banjo?
To Nashvegas!!
I flew in and we hung out for a bit, but I get very focused when I go somewhere with a purpose, so we headed to Nashville the next day after I arrived there. This was most likely the summer of 2000, specific dates I can’t recall, but it tracks with other memories from then. For everyone under the age of 40, this means pay phones were still common, cell, not as common, gps and maps on cell, not common or maybe even around. These were the days of printing out mapquest style directions and taking the printouts with you, because, that beat the crap out of a “dumb” paper map, lol. If you made changes to your travel itinerary on the fly, good luck and may the winds be at your back.
We hit up the big name stores like Gruhn Guitars and some others I’d known from my limited internet search. We had a plan and knew of some places to check out and went to make a day of it. If there was one thing Dad loved more than spending money was shopping. Not buying, necessarily, just plain old shopping was his jam. I also still love shopping, browsing, etc… We spent most of the morning hitting those places, but quickly learned that, yes, $1000 USD is limiting in what banjos you can afford. Most were in the $2k and up range, and the ones I found in my price range, I didn’t want to spend the money on, because I liked my Deering Good Time better.
Along Came A Stranger
We met up with my sister and in a glorious stroke of serendipity, she suggested a Guitar Center nearby, and away we went! It was fun, we were adventuring and making memories, regardless of if I found a banjo. Guitar Center had some better offerings in my price range, but again, nothing grabbed me and said, “I’m yours, we found each other!” It’s very similar to wand selection, for any Harry Potter fans. While I was playing around on a banjo, some guy was tearing it up, flat picking a guitar and of course, we struck up a conversation.
Him: “What brings y’all out today?”
Me: “I’m looking for a banjo, but I’m striking out so far…”
Him: “A banjo?! Have y’all been out to Curtis’s yet?! He’s got lots of banjos! You should check ol’ Curtis out!” Side note – yes, everything was loud exclamations and very much “y’all-centric” lol
Me: “Ummm, no. Who the hell is Curtis? And where is his store?” Side note – this guy is a bluegrass legend and I had no clue
Him: “It’s no store, but he’s got a massive collection of instruments in his basement. Curtis McPeake. Check him out!”
Me: “Awesome, thanks, do you have his address?”
Him: “Nope, but he’s off “random road and parkway/interstate junction I forgot by now”, take a right at the exit, you’ll see a waffle house, head down the road beside Waffle House and he’s back there somewhere. Shouldn’t be too hard to find him though. Good luck!”
Me: ”Thanks!”
I put down my banjo, and away we went to that random interstate exit.
Sleuthing in 2000
Well, we got off the exit, and sure as shit, there’s a Waffle House and a sideroad right beside it. Before we got any further, we stopped at Waffle House and I looked in the phonebook at the payphone, yes, it was still there thank goodness, and I looked for any McPeake nearby. Although, how would I know if they’re nearby without any other map, lol. I found a C.M. McPeake and I tried calling but to no avail. I noted the street name, got back in the truck, and we headed down the side road as per mystery guys directions. A few miles down the road we pass a street sign that was the same name as the phonebook! Glorious! We hit the brakes, backed up and went down it. I had the number memorized, so at this point, we were just looking for a house. We drove along and found the address and it was an unassuming ranch house with a walkout basement sitting on about 2 acres of well manicured grass, a handful of mature trees, and a ¼ mile long winding driveway. There was an older lady mowing the grass on a riding mower and she waved as we stopped at the end of the driveway gawking like we weren’t sure if we should be there or not. When I looked up the driveway I saw 2 full sized vans and a truck and they all had license plates from “not Tennessee” and I said, “Well, looks like we found Curtis…” lol
We pulled up the drive, and I shit you not, as we get out, someone opens the door to the walkout basement and asks, “Y’all looking for Curtis?” Man, I miss some things about the South, lol. We replied, “yes sir” and he invited us in. As I got closer to the door I could hear live bluegrass, and inside there was a 3 piece jam going on. I walked through the door and I’m looking straight down the entire length of the walkout basement. To my amazement, I see instruments fully covering the walls, top to bottom with some racks built in the middle to hold additional instruments. Imagine angels singing and this is how I felt, lol. Mandolins, guitars, resonator guitars, standup basses, and then… the banjos!
At the end of all of this basement, is a 1950’s style army green metal desk with who I can only assume is “Ol’ Curtis” sitting behind it and he says, “Come in, come in, what can I do for you?” We tell him we’re looking for a banjo and he motions to the wall of banjos, about 20’ long with 3 rows of instruments one on the floor, the next right above that, and then a final row hanging just below the ceiling. It was the biggest selection of banjos I’d seen that day! He asks about price range and style and when I say, well, I only have a grand ($1k), he replies with, “Well, I don’t have many cheap banjos for sale, but they’d be on that bottom row.” My heart sank, because like Gruhn Guitars, most of his banjos were vintage and professional quality but there were a few under $2k. I started playing a couple of them, I really sucked back then, but again, nothing grabbed me.
Lucy Arrives
Then I opened a closed case and found her. A Deering Maple Blossom and it was beautiful! She had a gorgeous finish and curly maple that looks 3D in the sunlight. I picked around on it and the volume and tone was incredible. Very bass forward and it had an amazing driving sound to it, even with my poor playing. I dishearteningly looked at the price tag, and it was only $1400 USD. Oooohhh… This was close to my range, and I’d had an extra $300 in my savings, by extra, I mean, that was all I had in there. Oh the “good old days”, lol. I asked Dad if he would be able to spot me $100 to cover it, because this was THE ONE.
Then we found out Ol’ Curtis didn’t take credit cards, just cash or check. Fortunately, Dad had his checkbook and was able to cover it, and I even got a free strap, lol. Less than 45 minutes after getting there, we had procured a banjo, met a bluegrass legend, heard some live bluegrass, and were walking out the door grinning like we’d just won the lottery.
After we got back in the truck Dad told me, “Look, don’t worry about sending me that money. Just enjoy it and think about me whenever you play it, and don’t sell it. I’ll buy it from you if you need money that badly.” And like that, I ended up with Lucy. Her full name is Loose Lucy, because until I did some tweaking and “jiggering” over the years, her pot screws would loosen randomly, and there were all sorts of things that were “almost but not” quite with her, lol. Also, it’s one of my fav Grateful Dead songs, so it fit well in a lot of ways.
Since then, I’ve changed out multiple heads, tailpieces, bridges, and more to try to get different sounds out of her, and after getting a Stelling Red Fox I kept a black head on it for more sustain and a mellower tone.
Memories Made
I still think about that trip and our adventure whenever I play it. I don’t plan on selling it, but rather keeping it until I die, or if one of the kids gets interested, then give it to one of them. It’s a great memory I have with my Dad and it makes me smile when I tell that story, well now I’m teary about it, but still, it’s a great memory for me. I still play Lucy, my Maple Blossom, just not as often as my Stelling, and next time I get a wild hair, I’ll swap the head back for a traditional one and get that punchy bass sound back, because man, does she throw out the notes! Regardless, of how she’s put together, the memory of that adventure remains.
Things might not have always been the best between me and my Dad, and they sure didn’t end how I would’ve wanted, but when he was good, he was great! For me, that was a LOT of the last bit of his life. I still miss him, the grief is still there, but it’s nice to get to reflect on the happy memories too. I finally got a tattoo as a tribute to him, of a mallard on the water with ripples showing forward movement, because I feel like I’m finally moving forward. Funny enough, no one knows WHY he likes ducks, just that he did. A LOT…
